VI.BE

Varied, multidisciplinary and exemplified by innovative concepts and technical approaches, Mirror Shards is a music project directed and based on the creative efforts of composer/producer/drummer Joe Formanek.

First starting with a invention called Auto-History, which can be understood as a methodology to improvisation, composition and live performances that keeps constant sonic contact with the artists former self via a database of recordings bound by homogeneous recordings sessions, thus the music being not only a composition of a single moment but of several moments throughout the artist’s life, ranging from recording sessions for these compositions, to improvisations with friends, to field recordings on holiday trips, conclusively allowing a new way to reflective insight into the time-based evolution of the artist’s personal development. This approach to music creation is the most distinctive characteristic of Mirror Shards, the quality of improvising with one's history, which produces deeply personal experiences.

Joe's most recent concept, Ghost Improvisation, is a conceptual approach that provokes new forms of improvisation – a group of selected improvisers are individually sent a set of audio files which they are to record themselves improvising to, alone in a room without another musician. These files are the “ghost” tracks which are removed from the final mix, leaving only the recordings of the improvisors playing together, communicating unintentionally through the same tracks even if they have never played or previously heard the improvisations of the other musicians. The risks of having disruptive musical interplay are heavily present, but the results in this session had been unnaturally successful and rewarding, with moments of unpremeditated and serendipitous interactions that would have never taken place if these improvisors had been listening to one another. This process in turn eliminates all opportunities of improvisational clichés, forces new forms of musical communication, and creates reflection on new ways of improvisation.

After many years of honing conventional and especially unconventional skills as a drummer and as an electronic musician, Joe demonstrates an exercise of concepts, such as the interplay of time and non-time based styles, traditional and extended instrumental techniques, field recordings, micro sampling, and sophisticated software resampling.

LINKS

mirrorshards.com

soundcloud.com/mirrorshards

twitter.com/mirrorshards_

facebook.com/mirrorshardsmusic